Serious crimes in Ripon are up double-digits year-to-date through the end of April. 

In just the four months of 2019, 132 Type 1 crimes – which are categorized as more serious than property crimes – were reported or responded to, which accounts for a 10 percent increase. According to information that was released by Ripon Police, those numbers were likely spiked by a 15 percent increase of simple assaults and an eight percent increase in reported general theft cases. 

While the spike has been identifiable in the volume of crime that is reported, over the last three years Ripon crime statistics have stayed relatively flat. Last year there was one less motor vehicle theft, six less assaults, and four less rapes than the year before, and exactly the same number of burglaries – numbers that in other valley cities have risen sharply, especially after changes to the criminal justice through AB109 and Senate Bills 47 and 57 which changed the way that people are housed in California’s jails and prisons and which crimes are classified as felonies. The only crime increases in 2018 as opposed to the year before were robberies – there were 5 in 2018 as opposed to 4 in 2017 – although there were 53 less Type 1 crimes last year as opposed to the year before. 

There was, however, a slight increase in the number of arrests in 2018 – 1,097 people were taken into custody last year as opposed to 1,074 the year prior. 

Since February the department has utilized a new mapping technology to represent the number of reported crimes in a given month – using a dot to represent the location of the incident to the nearest block rather than identifying the specific location as a way to protect the privacy of victims. The map that was released this week shows that larceny – also known as the theft of personal property –  was the prevailing crime in the month of April, and was oftentimes clustered in certain areas like the Jack Tone Road Interchange area, potentially signifying that one person may have been responsible for more than one of the reported crimes. 

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.